When people use the word childish as a pejorative, they forget that children are responsible for containing 99% of the world's cootie outbreaks. Reward your cootie-hating health warrior with today's Groupon: for $15, you get four general-admission tickets to KidsQuest Children's Museum in Bellevue (a $30 value).

The recipient of numerous awards, including Best Family-Friendly Fun from the readers of 425 magazine, KidsQuest Children's Museum provides its pint-sized patrons with 6,000 square feet of interactive, educational exhibit space. Grab the nearest child or child-like facsimile and clamber up the ladder that leads to the tree house, where kids can peer through a telescope using the same optometric principles Galileo used to spy on his neighbors. Then head for the garage, home to all manner of pulleys, levers, gears, and wheels, giving kids a glimpse of the sorts of simple machines responsible for powering the Internet. Water-based exhibits introduce kids to the fun they can have simply by combining the hydrogen and oxygen found in most homes, while a puppet theater gives budding thespians a chance to display their dramatic passions with a bevy puppets in need of hand and a voice. Many special programs and activities, such as those coming up during Creepy Crawlers Week (October 5–10), are complimentary, making each museum visit a potentially new experience. As an added bonus, Groupon purchasers can also apply this Groupon's $30 value toward an annual membership by showing their voucher or proof of admission via Groupon at the museum's admissions counter within two weeks of redeeming Groupon.

Open six days a week—including Saturday and Sunday—KidsQuest draws an average of 145,000 visitors a year with its innovative exhibits and ruthless pursuit of smiles. Today's deal provides a full day of kid-friendly fun, but all children must be chaperoned by an adult, who in turn must be chaperoned by a larger and more powerful adult.

All four admissions must be redeemed in the same visit.

Reviews

425 magazine readers named KidsQuest Children's Museum Best Family-Friendly Fun in 2010. Ruby Slipper Guide readers named the museum their favorite place to take kids of different ages on the Eastside, and Seattle's Child magazine reviewed it. Yelpers give the museum an average of four stars:

• When you have a big brother and a little sister (or any number of combinations with kids of different ages), it can be tricky to find one place to suit everyone…But the winner by a large margin is the Eastsides [sic] favorite children’s museum, with places for climbing and splashing, plus an area devoted to the little ones: KidsQuest in Bellevue. – Ruby Slipper Guide
• A recent visit to the KidsQuest Children's Museum in Factoria cured our winter blues with science, adventure and exploration. For such a small, unassuming space, KidsQuest has a lot to do for a variety of interests and ages. They seem to have a little of everything, from air machines and musical instruments to a giant tree house and a real semi-truck your kids can “drive.” – Erika M. Kapur, Seattle's Child magazine